


Valley of Shadow

by Meatball42



Category: NCIS
Genre: Episode: s07e01 Truth or Consequences, Gen, Hallucinations, Sleep Deprivation, Team as Family, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-24
Updated: 2014-02-24
Packaged: 2018-01-13 16:33:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1233481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meatball42/pseuds/Meatball42
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ziva is alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Valley of Shadow

After the first few beatings, the first few nights of creatures chittering at a distance and not at a distance, of ropes that dig into her tendons even when she sits still, Ziva consoles herself with the knowledge that he will come for her. For the blood that binds them together, that runs through her veins, that runs down her face, her back, her arms, he will come for her.

In this dry, dusty room that is the hottest she has felt in years, Ziva weighs her loyalty and her blood against her father's duty, and she knows…

They will come for her.

[*]

Her captor wants to know about NCIS. Ziva refuses to reply, and when he drugs her she spills misinformation, makes up stories, gives him not a shred of information that could be used against her friends.

For her loyalty, for the blood that she allows to be spilled for them, they will come for her.

[*]

Ziva does not sleep in Somalia, has not been asleep, truly, for weeks. The ties at her wrists, her midsection and her ankles restrict motion to almost nothing and her muscles cramp, daggers of pain that she cannot quash. The heavy heat and humidity weigh her down until even lifting her head, her eyelids, seems as difficult as an escape. Her body throbs eternally, the rats squeak in the shadows around her, and her waking dreams stare at her, silently, from where she has pushed them, to the ground at her feet or to a departing plane, away from her and never to return.

In her more lucid moments, she knows it is just the drugs he gives her that make her see them, just the sleep deprivation, just her longing to see them whole and well. She prays that she does not say anything that could hurt them when they appear to her. Ziva would never forgive herself if she brought pain to them, more than she already has.

She has realized, that as much as she hates Tony, as much as she felt like her heart was ripped out when Gibbs turned away from her, she loves them as much as she loved her true family, and more.

She will not betray them, even though they have forgotten her.

[*]

They pull a bag over her head, drag her out of her cell. Ziva can barely make her legs work, they are so weak from underuse and her malnourishment. She hears Tony's voice and her dry tongue shifts in her mouth as she swears to herself she will not speak to him. She must not let her captor know how weak she is, how much weaker she grows by the day, by the hour.

It will not be long, now.

Her greatest regret, the thing that hurts her worse than all the pain her captors have forced upon her, is that she will never get to see them again. Her team, her family. That she will never get to apologize or be apologized to, that she will never again hug Abby or share a smile with McGee. It hurts so much to imagine them in Washington, doing their jobs and going on with life, not needing her, but she wishes with all her heart that she could warn them that they are in danger, even if it was her last act on the Earth.

Even though they, too, have abandoned her.

Her captor rips the hood off her, and Ziva's eyes take a few moments to clear. She has been brought to the interrogation room and Tony is across from her, his green eyes wide. It is the truest picture she has ever conjured, and Ziva knows, deep inside of her, that this interrogation will be her last.


End file.
